The History of Costa Rica Gourmet Coffee

Costa Rica is home to some of the finest gourmet coffee in the world. It has become a huge industry for Costa Rica and Costa Rica import gourmet coffee all over the world. It developed its gourmet coffee industry very early – thanks to one man. It also has a strong protestant religious church – thanks to one man...

William Le Lacheur, an Englishman was born on 15 October 1802 and was very early baptized with the name Guillaume Le Lacheur (using the French version of the forename) in the parish church of the Forest, Guernsey on 31 October by his parents Jean Le Lacheur and Marie Suzanne (née Allez). He was named after his grandfather, Guillaume Allez, who was also one of his godparents. Amazing how the French can mess up a good thing.

William is widely credited in Costa Rica as having transformed the economy of this Central American country by establishing a direct regular trade route for Costa Rican gourmet coffee growers to the European market, thereby helping to establish the Costa Rican gourmet coffee trade and development of gourmet coffee in Costa Rica. He set up the market and the trade routes that allowed the gourmet coffee business to bloom and flourish.

William grew up rather quietly in England but did grow a love for ships and shipping. After trade school he married Rachel de Jersey (1798–1882) in a church wedding on 19 May 1828. No gourmet coffee was served and in time Costa Rica had five children: Rachel, Emma, Amelia, John and Louisa.

Costa Rica Gourmet Coffee & Coffee Trade

To support his family he bought a ship from his inheritance and started sailing. The year was 1829. After sailing for 3 years and building a good shipping route and building up some capital to expand his shipping business he decided to expand his business. He traded up and got a bigger ship called the Minerva. By 1836, he had formed a company Le Lacheur & Co, which owned two ships: Minerva & Dart. He entered the fruit trade which required faster ships; faster routes and more money. Over the following years, he continued to add to his fleet, and seek out new markets. In 1841, Le Lacheur took delivery of the barque Monarch. The Monarch was a much larger vessel capable of journeys further afield. With longer journeys he was able to expand his trade and his routes. During a stop at the port of Mazatlan, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, he learnt from the British Consul of the difficulty that the Costa Rican gourmet coffee growers were having in finding a market for their produce. He decided to investigate.

Since their independence in 1839, Costa Rica found no regular trade routes for their fruit or gourmet coffee in the European markets. This was compounded by transportation problems within the country. The farms were too far from the coast or too close to the Pacific Coast { remember no Panama Canal at this time). The gourmet coffee-growing areas were located in the central part of the country, and it was impossible, because of the mountains and the rainy forest, to send the gourmet coffee to the Caribbean Sea and therefore to the Atlantic. It was a lot easier to ship the gourmet coffee to a Pacific port, Puntarenas, and to sail around Cape Horn to the Atlantic Ocean and onward to Europe. Further hampering them was Costa Rica had no internal railroad system.

William saw a huge business opportunity – as he had fallen in love with the Costa Rica gourmet coffee and knew it would sale well in Europe. He agreed with Costa Rican gourmet coffee growers to establish a regular service to carry their gourmet coffee to London. In 1843, the Monarch arrived in the Costa Rican port of Puntarenas, and loaded the first cargo of nearly 5,000 bags of gourmet coffee. The venture was a success, and he began increasing the size of his fleet to accommodate the increasing demand for gourmet coffee in London. During the rest of the 1840s, he diverted his other ships from the fruit trade to the gourmet coffee trade. Then starting in 1850 he commissioned the construction of five ships designed especially for the gourmet coffee trade. During the 1860's, a further seven ships were added to the fleet.

In addition to his contribution to the Costa Rican economy through establishing trade routes, Le Lacheur made a significant impact on the development of a number of other aspects of Costa Rica.

Church Gourmet Coffee

Le Lacheur, a devout Christian, was appalled by what he described "the lowest form of the Roman faith" being practised where superstition took precedence over true religion. Through the British and Foreign Bible Society, he obtained and distributed Spanish Language bibles, thereby introducing Protestant faith into Costa Rica. As a result he distributed 3,500 bibles in Costa Rica, and was presented with an inscribed Imperial Quarto Bible by the Bible Society in recognition of his achievements.

In 1864, the year after Le Lacheur's death, it was resolved to build the first Protestant church in Costa Rica. It was made of pre-fabricated iron, was carried to Costa Rica by Le Lacheur's son John and was assembled in San José as the Church of the Good Shepherd. It became unofficially known as the 'Iron Church'. When it was rebuilt in 1937 with more traditional materials, a memorial plaque was erected to Le Lacheur with an inscription which includes the phrase "by whose exertions public Protestant worship was established in this Republic."

Once Le Lacheur had established a fleet of ships that were regularly making journeys between Costa Rica and London, he arranged with several Costa Rican families to take their sons to England for their education. This has been cited as a contributing factor to Costa Rica's economic success.

This arrangement was also responsible for the introduction of the game of football to Costa Rica. Through this Le Lacheur has also been credited with contributing to Costa Rica national team qualifying for the 2002 FIFA World Cup[1].

The Army and Defense of Costa Rica

When William Walker, an American filibuster, attempted to invade Costa Rica in 1856, the Costa Rican government declared war. However, the march from the Costa Rican military base in San José to the northern border was an arduous one. Le Lacheur put his ships at the disposal of the Costa Rican military commanders to transport the army up the coast to the border so that Costa Rica would arrive fit and ready to fight. As a result, Costa Rica successfully repelled the filibusters.[2]

He is buried in Highgate Cemetery in London. There is a Memorial to Captain William Le Lacheur of Guernsey in the Church of the Good Shepherd, San José, Costa Rica. Postage stamps have been issued commemorating his achievements by both his native Guernsey (1997) and Costa Rica (1963).